Various means and techniques have been devised for the formation of barriers or closures across area ways, such as stairways or doorways, in order to limit or confine an infant to a particular area of a home so as to prevent accidents. Among the various approaches taken in the past to a solution of this problem has been to form an adjustable gate which has overlapping panels secured between support bars or struts so that the struts when adjusted to fit a particular opening will cause the panels to advance therewith in substantially closing the opening. Typical of this approach is U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,163,205 to Gottlieb, 2,756,469 to Cattermole et al, and 2,701,927 to Dyer.
It has also been proposed in the past in other arts to employ telescoping spring-biased rods to serve as an adjustable support across areas, such as, a doorway in which opposite ends of the rods can be yieldingly urged under spring tension into firm engagement with the opposed end wall surfaces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,662,167 to Rexinger discloses a spring-biased rod which forms a window grating and another window.
In accordance with the present invention, there has been devised a novel and improved infant security gate assembly which forms a releasable closure adapted for disposition between spaced, confronting sides of an area way, such as, a doorway or stairway, the gate assembly comprised of a pair of panels arranged in parallel, substantially overlapping relation to one another, and supporting means for said panel including upper and lower common support bars traversing the upper and lower edges of said panels and to which said panels are secured. Sleeve members are disposed at upper and lower corners of said pair of panels for insertion of said support bars therethrough, at least one of the sleeve members on one panel being connected to one of the support bars, and the sleeve members of the other panel being slidable with respect to the support bars. Each support bar includes telescoping tubular sections having side-engaging means at opposite ends thereof and threaded adjustment means between each of the telescoping tubular sections for rotating one of the tubular sections to vary the effective length of the support bars, the threaded adjustment means having spring-loading means to yieldingly urge the telescoping sections of each support bar in an outward direction forcing the side-engaging ends into engagement with the sides of the area way, and panel expansion means associated with one of the tubular sections engageable with the other of said panels to cause said other panel to follow the movement of the one tubular section in the outward direction.
A further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel and improved infant security gate of the type described which is of unitary construction and comprised of a minimum number of parts having novel and improved telescoping support members to facilitate adjustable disposition and engagement of the gate assembly between doorways or other area ways of different widths while avoiding the use of permanent fasteners.
In accordance with the present invention, there has been devised a novel and improved form of infant security gate assembly which is specifically conformable for use in forming a releasable closure across a doorway or stairway, the gate assembly being broadly comprised of a plurality of panels arranged in parallel, substantially overlapping relation to one another, and supporting means for the panels having upper and lower common support bars to which the panels are secured, each of the support bars including telescoping tubular sections having threaded adjustment means therebetween to vary the effective length of said support bars, there being vertical surface-engaging end portions on the support bars, and the threaded adjustment means having spring-loading means associated therewith to yieldingly urge the telescoping sections in a direction forcing the vertical surface-engaging end portions into engagement with the opposed confronting sides of a doorway.
Preferably, the panels are of corresponding construction and are formed with complementary slide fastener elements therebetween. The panels are of generally rectangular configuration having outer solid frame portions and inner grid portions with support bar sleeves at each corner of the panel to permit insertion of the support bars in the form of the telescoping tubular sections. The sleeves on the outside corners of one panel are positively secured to follow the movement of one of the tubular sections, but the sleeve connectors on the inside corners of the one panel are free to slide relative to the other tubular sections. Further, the sleeves on the other panel are mounted on the other stationary tubular section so that the one panel is free to follow the relative lengthwise movement of the movable sections as they are expanded and contracted relative to the other stationary tubular sections in order to vary the overall effective width of the panels to effectively form a closure which will prevent ingress or egress through the doorway.
The support bars are constructed in a novel and distinct manner to incorporate a spring-loaded coil spring arrangement extending between the telescoping tubular sections and which springs are threadedly adjustable along spring-engaging lugs within the tubular sections by rotation of one of the tubular sections with respect to the other. By adjusting the effective length of the support bars to be just greater than the width of the doorway, inward compression of the tubular section so as to fit between the doorway will cause the spring coil to exert the desired degree of tension against the opposed vertical surface-engaging end portions and permit mounting of the gate in press-fit relation across the doorway.